“Glee” Episode 210 Recap: Christmas time will always be, just as long as we have “Glee”

Some of the guys were saying in the comments over on AfterElton.com that they couldn’t tell if I liked Glee or not sometimes. Yeah. They’re not gonna have that problem in this recap. This episode of Glee had me at the first mention of “The Island of Misfit Toys.”

The
teachers at McKinley are exchanging Secret Santa gifts, powered by Coach Beiste. Will, after enduring a “let’s be friends” chat with Emma, draws Sue’s name.

Brittany is decorating her
locker for Christmas while Artie
helps. “Last year I left my stocking up over Christmas vacation, and an
entire family of mice started living in it,” she tells him as she hangs an
ornament. “Their Christmas gift to each other was rabies.”

Artie, it
turns out, wants just one thing for Christmas: For his parents to stop friend
requesting him on Facebook.

“What
are you asking Santa for?” Brittany asks him.

Artie is
all, huh?

“Artie,
the roads to the North Pole are getting treacherous,” she says earnestly.
“You need to write your letter to Santa and get in the mail today. And
remember, even the smallest envelope is heavy for an elf.”

“No
way,” Artie breaths as she walks away, having apparently just met her two
seconds ago. If there was ever anyone who could more obviously (and charmingly)
grow to high school age and still believe in Santa than Brittany S. Pierce, I
have no idea who it could be. Wake up and smell the candy canes, Artie!

Now, if you
happened to come to my house any time during the holiday season, you’d find the Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer DVD next to my television set. I think
the whole show is a beautiful metaphor about being an outsider and even about
growing up queer (hello, Hermie the gay
elf, I mean, dentist). It’s kind
of like stop motion animation Glee in
the North Pole with reindeer.

So when we
I realized they were decorating a Christmas tree while singing the “Island
of Misfit Toys” song (“The Most Wonderful Day Of The Year”), I
actually stopped taking notes and just stared, mesmerized, at the screen. And I
kind of never stopped until the commercial break. Thank Santa for DVRs or this
recap would be a little sparse on details.

We have Quinn dancing around singing,
“Wake up! Don’t you know it’s time to come out?” We have Brittany as
the spotted elephant! We have Artie, who I couldn’t even find it in my heart to
hate this week, making little choo-choo motions with his hand.

Then we
have Mr. Schue the douche coming in and spreading some Christmas gloom over the
whole scene.

“Hi,
guys,” he says, bewildered. “What’s this?”

Turns out
Glee Club’s own Charlie Brown, Finn,
found the tree at the side of the road, and Santana scored some free ornaments. “The guy who lives next
door finally killed off his elderly mother, and when they carted him off they
left the house wide open, so … I think she was a holiday hoarder.”

Puck contributed the presents
under the tree: “I lifted them from a display at the mall,” he says.
“But don’t worry, they’re empty.”

Will
doesn’t like the rag tag Christmas his kids are putting together, and he
definitely doesn’t like that they’re seen as misfits by the rest of the school
even after their triumph at Sectionals two years running. His prescription: To
go caroling throughout the school to raise money for homeless kids.

“We’re
gonna be killed,” says Quinn.

But Finn’s
optimistic. “No, guys. It’s Christmas. A time for miracles. We gotta try
this.”